Mobile handsets have an inherently impoverished graphical user interface (GUI) with respect to desktop computers. Small screens and tiny keyboards are typical of mobile handsets that fit in your pocket. Recent so called smart phones have introduced the use of a touch screen in an attempt to simplify the user experience with his mobile handset. For instance, the touch interface of the iPhone® has revolutionized the mobile handset industry and brought whole new mobile user experiences.
In existing smart phones, application programs (AP) may be controlled using touch inputs. Different touch inputs may control the AP in different ways. For instance, a user touching an AP icon will cause a control of the desktop GUI that will launch the AP corresponding to the touched icon. The desktop GUI of the iPhone™ comprising a plurality of AP icons may be seen as an AP itself. A sliding motion across the desktop GUI, or a drag touch input, will cause another control of the desktop GUI, like displaying another set of AP icons hidden so far. The user gets a feeling that he is browsing through pages of AP icons to select an interesting application program.
The new smartphones or even pads, like the Apple™ or Samsung™ tablets, are now capable of functions far beyond simple phone services. They can include media playing and recording, web browsing, games, etc.
Among media applications, it is possible now to playing media like videos or music with these devices. The media content can be local or streamed over a data connection from a media server.
Smart phones are just one of many devices available today to a user. Other devices like music players, TVs, computers, pads . . . can also play media content. Indeed, the emergence of connected devices has extended the realm of the possible when it comes for the user to interact with and share a media content. This creates the opportunity for a variety of players (manufacturers, pay-TV operators, Internet companies, telecom operators . . . ) to offer multi-screens solutions between devices.
Sharing solutions are now readily available to distribute the media content among the different user devices. A user for instance can send a picture from one smartphone to another target smartphone provided they both host the same sharing application. To do so the devices are paired and the user has the feeling that he is actually displacing the picture from one device to the other by simply sliding the picture with his finger in the direction of the receiving device.
Other solutions are available for videos played for instance on a tablet. Apple Airplay® is a solution proposed for local media content. A user may start viewing with a device like a smartphone or tablet a media content local to that device. He can then activate a popup menu listing different alternative target display devices, paired beforehand. Upon selection of one of them, the local content will be streamed through a home network from the viewing device to the selected target device.
Google Fling® offers a similar user's experience. Another solution is proposed by Snapstick™. It consists in browsing a catalog of different videos, and upon selection of one of them (an activation of a transfer), you can shake your device and the selected video is streamed directly to another predefined device.
The existing solutions, when they allow a pre-visualization of the media content, do not offer a fluid or intuitive experience for the user. They often present cluttered interfaces to the user, especially when he is offered the possibility of sharing with many user devices. Furthermore they do not rely extensively upon a rich environment like a touch interface. There is a need today for a new solution to share media content that really takes advantage of such a rich environment. There is a further need for an simplified interface that allows a simple and easy transfer to the user, besides the number of possible target devices.